By Leshi Adebayo
The Federal Executive Council (FEC), on Wednesday, approved the right to 14-day paternity leave for male federal civil servants.
Head of Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan disclosed this to State House correspondents briefly after the week’s virtual FEC meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Yemi-Esan explained that the decision was made to enable for proper bonding between the father and a newborn especially at early stages of the child’s life.
She said, “So, that is what has been approved for men so that the men and their babies also can bond well together. It’s important because we want the young children and the youth really to bond properly with their fathers, just as they bond well with their mothers.
“So, this is the first time, that has been approved now, for men to bond at the early stages, especially at the early stages of a child’s life, that is when it’s very important for this bonding to take place.”
The chief civil servant stated that the initiative is one of the introductions to the newly reviewed Public Service Rules (PSR), recently approved by FEC, which was revised previously in 2008.
“We’ve also gotten approval to include paternity leave. This is something that is new. And this is something that the unions in the service asked that we include, and luckily, we’ve been able to include it.
“We’ve also been able to ensure that leave now is calculated based on working days, not on calendar days, that also has been approved.
“We also have introduced the transition from paper service to a digital service. So, these are some of the new things that are in the new PSR that has just been approved by the federal executive council,” she explained.
Yemi-Esan added that the new directive applies to fathers of either natural-born or adopted children as fathers of adopted babies of less than four months will also enjoy the same gesture.
